Free Republic

An Atlanta mayoral candidate who voted to sequester $73 million from the city’s police department budget reportedly had his car stolen by a group of young thieves this week — and wound up thanking the cops for their help.

An online petition to rename Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, DC, after teenage pop star JoJo Siwa has earned over 55,000 signatures — and even an endorsement from Siwa herself. The Change.org petition, succinctly titled "Rename Ronald Reagan Airport to Jojo Siwa Washington National Airport," was created by Georgetown University student Dylan Long, DCist reported in April. Currently addressed to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority John E. Potter, the text of the petition itself is brief: "why on earth is there an airport named after this war criminal."

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy is “going gangbusters,” but the Federal Reserve needs to see several more months of data on jobs and inflation before determining when to begin scaling back its easy-money policies, Fed governor Christopher Waller said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Monday sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred asking if Manfred would give up his membership at the exclusive Augusta National Golf Club in the wake of the league's decision to pull the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to protest Georgia's controversial new voting law.

A woman has died and five others, including a 4-year-old and three teenagers, were injured in a shooting at a park in Birmingham, Alabama on Easter Sunday. The gunfire erupted in W.C. Patton Park, where a large crowd of people had gathered to celebrate Easter, at around 7 p.m., AL.com reported.

The United Methodist Church is a big tent theologically, and people with conservative or traditional religious beliefs make up the largest group under that spreading canvas. Those are two key findings from a new United Methodist Communications survey of United Methodists in the United States. The survey dug into views on various theology-related subjects, including the Bible, Jesus, salvation, the Resurrection and the afterlife. The goal was to shed light on the beliefs of people in the pews of United Methodist churches. Of those contacted, 44 percent identified themselves as conservative/traditional in religious beliefs, 28 percent as moderate/centrist and 20...

There is little suspense left in our presidential horse race, even in most of the so-called swing states, says astrophysicist and statistician Wes Colley. The way he measures the poll data and his deceptively simple median method, which have correctly predicted the last two presidential elections, show President Obama has locked up Ohio and Virginia and cemented a small, but stable lead in Florida. Bottom line: Obama is well on his way to re-election. "I think the operative word is disaster if you're a Republican," said Colley on Monday. "I think the operative word is confidence if you're a Democrat."...

DENVER—A ballot initiative in Colorado that could make the state the first to effectively legalize marijuana has an unlikely bunch of people very nervous: owners of the state's medical marijuana dispensaries. Despite an expected surge in demand, some fear passage of the initiative, called Amendment 64—which legalizes the buying and selling of up to one ounce of pot at a time for customers over the age of 21—could goad the federal government into a crackdown on the dispensaries, ending their industry's three-year miniboom. If the amendment passes, the "best-case scenario [is] you get a million new customers," the owner of...

In June, Robert Benmosche, the chairman of the insurance giant American International Group, said an increase in the retirement age was unavoidable. What surprised many is how high he predicted the age would go. "Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old," Benmosche told Bloomberg. "That would make pensions, medical services more affordable. They will keep people working longer and will take that burden off of the youth."

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- An immigrant advocacy group says it wants the Department of Homeland Security to halt a program in Alabama that has led to the deportation of a number of illegal immigrants arrested for minor offenses. Officials with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice said at a press conference late this afternoon that this evening they were presenting a petition, with more than 10,000 signatures on it, asking that DHS halt its Secure Communities program in the state. Secure Communities was designed as a nationwide program to target illegal immigrants who have the most serious criminal histories. The program...

It's a dilemma that many working moms face: What do you do when your child is too sick to go to school but you have a can't-miss obligation at the office? For Adrienne Pine, a single mom and an assistant professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C., the choice seemed clear. When her infant daughter woke up with a fever on August 28, the first day of Pine's class on Sex, Gender and Culture, Pine decided to bring her baby along. Everything went smoothly for the first part of the 75-minute long lecture.

The push by Detroit's ailing Big Three automakers for government aid has set off a furious debate that has distinct undertones of a North-South conflict - and Alabama is smack in the middle of the skirmish. With the fate of the Big Three hanging in the balance, the chief of the United Auto Workers late last month singled out Alabama for criticism, saying the state has ponied up $700 million in tax breaks and perks for foreign automakers. Ron Gettelfinger, whose union also is imperiled, complained that Alabama lawmakers are among those opposing a bailout of General Motors Corp., Ford...

Five men found slain last week in a north Shelby County apartment were beaten and shocked. Investigators believe that on Aug. 17 - three days before the discovery - the men were beaten and tortured with electric shocks, and their throats were cut, the sheriff said. in a brutal murder-for-hire related to drugs and money, authorities said Tuesday. Four men have been charged with capital murder in the slayings, which Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry described during a news conference as being connected to a drug organization that transports cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. All the suspects either received or paid...

WASHINGTON – In the wake of last year’s failed immigration reform efforts, twelve Republican Senators today introduced 15 specific enforcement bills, each designed to make important improvements to America’s immigration system. Each bill in the package represents a specific step toward securing America’s borders, increasing enforcement at the workplace, or restoring law and order to our nation’s immigration system. The coalition, led by U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), will call for full Senate consideration on each of the individual bills as amendments to any appropriate legislative vehicle or as stand-alone pieces of legislation. “The American people have made it clear...

NEW YORK - For many black Americans, it's a conversation they find hard to avoid, revisiting old fears in the light of bright new hopes. They watch with wonder as Barack Obama moves ever closer to becoming America's first black president. And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe? There is, of course, no sure answer. But interviews with blacks across the country, prominent and otherwise, suggest that lingering worries are outweighed by enthusiasm and determination.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Johnnie Carr, who joined childhood friend Rosa Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott and kept a busy schedule of civil rights activism up to her final days, has died. She was 97. In a statement, Gov. Bob Riley said Carr was a "remarkable woman and will be deeply missed." She was a true inspiration, Riley said, and "leaves behind a lasting legacy of pride, determination, and perseverance."

MONTGOMERY - A bill to combat illegal immigration in Alabama was introduced in the Legislature on Thursday, but even its sponsor wasn't optimistic about its chances of passage. The "Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2008" contains some of the recommendations made by a joint interim committee on illegal immigration last summer and fall. Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, the bill's author, had a gloomy outlook for the measure, citing opposition by the leadership in the House and Senate, and "special interest groups."

Shekelia T. Ward gave birth Jan. 8 at Andalusia Regional Hospital, and the next day she was arrested, jailed and charged with chemical endangerment of a child, a felony. The reason: Ward and her newborn both tested positive for cocaine, and the hospital reported the information to authorities as evidence of possible child abuse. Ward's experience is the product of a new law that has some prosecutors, particularly in southeast Alabama, arresting new mothers who test positive for illicit drugs. The prosecutors began filing these charges after the state Legislature in 2006 made it illegal to "chemically endanger" a child....

For Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female head of the 2.4 million-member U.S. Episcopal Church, military conflict in the Middle East hits very close to home. Jefferts Schori has a 26-year-old daughter, Kate, a pilot who was recently deployed to the United Arab Emirates as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. "We raised our daughter to make her own decisions and she's clearly done that," Jefferts Schori said Friday in Birmingham. "We're very supportive of the work she's doing, believing that it's far better to have leaders who come with a solid, moral, ethical base and...

DES MOINES, Iowa—Members of the Iowa Interfaith Immigration Coalition are urging presidential candidates of both parties to conduct the debate over immigration policy in a civil manner “that respects human dignity.” In a Dec. 4 news conference, Connie Ryan Terrell, executive director of The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, led a group of speakers who gathered to “change the negative, public attitudes and rhetoric which demonize and dehumanize our immigrant friends and neighbors.” Ms. Terrell said this “destructive attitude has permeated our nation,” making the discussion about immigration a more “complex and difficult debate.” In a four-week period, more than 3,600...